Leica, yay or nay

AshleyC

AshleyC

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Ok ive fallen in love with the M3. I've seen a couple on fleabay , both around the 1k mark though with lens , summicron 50mm f2.

Do we have any owners out there? I'm just on the fence at the moment and not sure weather to pull the trigger or not. I don't actually do a lot of 35mm shooting anymore, i don't even use my D800 that much, its all medium or large format, but this thing is just calling out to me.

What sort of running costs are involved if it needs a service or fungus clean on the lens or something.
 
I've got an mM3, beautifully made and a pleasure to use but it doesn't get as much use as it should and it may well get replaced with a Bessa R4 for the wider frame lines.
 
Typical (full) service costs are £50 for a lens and around £100 for the body from a dealer like Red Dot Cameras or RG Lewis, there's also the option of sending it directly to Leica (which preserves the wax 'L' seal on the mount and comes with a certificate), but that will be expensive. Unless the camera is particularly fault prone or you drop it a lot you probably won't need to service it again - for reference, my M4 was unserviced from brand new (1967) only the slow speeds were sticking when I held the body upside down and the viewfinder was slightly fogged. I had it serviced about 3 years ago, the speeds are all fine, rangefinder patch is still calibrated and I've travelled thousands of miles with that camera. The finder on the M3 is perfect if you like using a 50, although the cylindrical rewind knob may prove to be tedious for some.
 
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Well I have taken all my shots in a lifetime without a Leica, but if you have £1K to spare why not get it ( I would probably too).....my philosophy is:- I don't want to end up moaning to myself saying "I wish I bought that or done that" etc
 
I had one years ago when they were only a few years old, It was an M3 double wind and I loved it. Beautiful engineering but a pain in the ass to load film. :)

If you can afford it go for it the worst that can happen is you sell it on again. If you do I don't see you will lose any money on it unless you pay over the odds in the first place or you buy a dog which needs loads of repair work.
 
Leica - yay!

I'm new to Leica ownership but once you've used one it does cast a spell over you.
 
thanks for the replies peeps :) The costs dont seem too bad if it needs doing, although i guess it ramps up if something is really wrong with it!

Yeah i figured i wouldnt lose money on one if i decided to sell on later. But say what you like about the modern leica's and their point and shoots etc, these old ones just seem like miracles of engineering.

What is the single and double wind thing though? ive seen mention of these in the adverts.
 
I'm no expert,but believe the single / double wind is down to if the winder moves a whole frame in one action or two. I think it was supposed to be safer or easier on the film wind with the double? I'm sure someone with one will let us both know for sure!
 
Steve's got it, the double stroke model means you cock the lever once to advance the film then again to tension the shutter, single stroke does it all in one action. Apparently the DS exerts less tension on the film as it gets pulled, but Leicas after the M3 were single stroke anyway so I suspect that the difference is negligible.
 
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